This comes about after "aides" to Clegg yesterday went running to the plod to tell them that students are plotting to kidnap him in protest at his U-turn over university tuition fees. More than 10,000 student and union activists opposed to the Government's "cuts" will take to the streets tomorrow and on Saturday to denounce the Clegg, MP for Sheffield Hallam.
Police leave has been cancelled to shield the 2,000 delegates in an operation that is expected to leave the city with a £2 million bill. Clegg's staff yesterday reported the concerns to his personal protection officers but denied that special anti-kidnap precautions are in place. But the huge cost of protecting Mr Clegg from his own constituents is the greatest humiliation for a leading politician for "a man of the people", since it was learned that he now needs an armoured car to go about his business.
This is a man to whom most people would not even donate used toilet tissue if that was the price of his ransom, yet such are the fading powers of the élites that they will use our money to keep the man safe. The politicians may now care to reflect, that when only brute force, armed policemen and multi-million pound barriers keep their grateful voters from expressing their appreciation, they may not quite be getting their messages through.
It is Clegg, however, who labels himself "defiant", in an "exclusive" interview in the Yorkshire Post(meaning no one else wanted to interview him). But how very easy it is to be "defiant", when you have a £300,000 armoured car at your disposal, and £2 million-worth of personal security. People such as these do not know the meaning of the word.
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... it's always the foreigners who get the fun? One sees, however, that these are locally retained staff. One was a Palestinian holding a Syrian passport, just the sort of person you expect the BBC to employ. You don't get the London-based staff risking their lilly-white skins on reporting the news. They'll be back in the studios, watching the coverage and interviewing each other – waving their hands around in that irritating fashion of theirs, which makes them unwatchable.
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A study of renewable energy in Scotland now shows that for every job created in the alternative energy sector, almost four jobs are lost in the rest of the economy.
This is a new study called "Worth The Candle?" by the consulting firm Verso Economics which confirms the experience of Spain and other countries: The creation of "green" jobs destroys other jobs through the diversion of resources and the denial of abundant sources of fossil fuel energy.
The economic candle in the UK is being blown out by wind power. The Verso study finds that after the annual diversion of some £330 million from the rest of the UK economy, the result has been the destruction of 3.7 jobs for every "green" job created.
The study concludes that the "policy to promote renewable energy in the UK has an opportunity cost of 10,000 direct jobs in 2009-10 and 1,200 jobs in Scotland". So British taxpayers, as is the case in the US, are being forced to subsidise a net loss of jobs in a struggling economy.
I suppose it could be worse, though … they could be building electric vans.
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Coventry firm Modec, which manufactures electric vehicles, has gone into administration. Reported to be £40 million in debt, the company claimed to be the first, purpose-built zero emission vehicles manufacturer in the world. It has been hailed as a ground-breaking company, paving the way for innovative eco-vans.
However, since the launch of the company in 2007, only a reported 400 vehicles have been built, at a loss currently amounting to £100,000 per vehicle. Administrators Zolfo Cooper said the company had experienced "severe cash flow difficulties" and blamed the tough economic climate.
Yet, in 2009, The Guardian was saying, "Electric vans are a viable cleantech alternative. Now able to compete on range and price, electric vans are a cleantech alternative to diesel".
The plant in the Binley Industrial Estate was originally unveiled on 8 March 2007 by that well-known supporter of things green, showing the judgement for which he has since become famous ... step forward Mr David Cameron, followed by Caroline Spelman - to interview the wimmin at the heart of manufacturing.
You would, as they say, have to have a heart of stone not to smile.
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The trouble is, folks, he is serious. How does it go: "turds of the fellahs stick together"? Or have I got that worng? The colleague thinks I have. She thinks he is finished ... unassailable, even.
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The state is your servant, never your master. It should defend people from every threat – but it should not use that as a premise to infringe unnecessarily on the freedom of the individual. As far as humanly possible, it should crush bureaucracy and hand power to the people.This is from a man who supports the European Union as a construct, a top-down, centralist organisation which regards the peoples of Europe as its own property, to dictate to as it feels fit. That Cameron cannot see the huge gap between his own rhetoric, and the reality which he endorses, speaks legions for his unfitness for office.
Howsoever, Euroslime's basic tennet is sound. In bringing the new book of the Battle of Britain close to its conclusion (I should be finished the first draft by the weekend), I found myself writing the following in the epilogue:
Summed up, therefore, the lessons of the Battle of Britain are that, if you rely on government, its neglect may kill you, and having done so it will lie and deceive to obscure its actions and its responsibility for them. Salvation lies not in government but in making government conform to the wishes and needs of the people. Government is a poor master – it will kill you with its indifference. But it can be an adequate servant, if forced to be so.There is not a lot of difference between the two statements, except for the one substantive difference between us: I mean it, Cameron doesn't. But the problem, of course, is how to turn the theory into practice. What form of society can best communicate to its government its "wishes and needs", make it perform and yet prevent it from taking over, swapping the master-servant relationship?
In an attempt to answer that question, I spent some time yesterday listing on a piece of paper all the political "isms" I could think of, from Fascism, to Socialism, through to localism and even Humanism. Nothing I could think of precisely reflects the core political philosophy expressed in the passages cited. Certainly, the philosophy is not currently reflected in any form of conservatism of which I am aware.
Thus did it strike me that we need a new "ism". Every revolution needs one, and if we are going to take the political system apart and put it back together again, we need one as well. I have an idea that "Famulism" might do, based on the Latin for servant, thus defining the role of the state. But I am open to offers.
The pic, incidentally, is a page from the Daily Mirror on 16 September 1942. The story (top right) contrasts with the front page of The Daily Express of the previous day, and makes for a fascinating story – which embodies the essence of my own quote. More of that later.
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All this comes on the back of the review by Tom Winsor, commissioned by the current administration, which recommends cutting back on police allowances and overtime payments, to the extent that up to 40 percent might lose £4,000 a year ... although, alarmingly, the rest would gain by up to £2,000 a year.
These recommendations have been sufficient to have members of the Police Federation's ruling council accusing the administration of "bullying demoralised officers", through "a series of swingeing pay cuts" – which makes such a delicious change from police officers bullying demoralised Council Tax payers who are having to take real cuts in their standards of living to pay for their salaries and grossly inflated pensions.
The Guardian notes that the move "further adds to momentum driving police and the government towards a clash", just as ministers rely on police officers to maintain order at protests expected from public sector workers also hit by the cuts.
Next thing we might see, perhaps, is police demonstrations, with fellow officers refusing to police them unless they are paid mega-overtime ... with the two sides swapping over at half-time. Could this be the ultimate in make-work schemes?
However, we could also be seeing giant sized chickens, with more seats than economy-rigged A-380s – coming storming into roost. No matter how just their cause, the police have exhausted their fund of goodwill from the ordinary population, to the extent that they will find no sympathy whatsoever out on the streets.
Maybe that's why the Cleggerons feel empowered to take their action, although they don't seem to realise that they are about as unpopular as the police they are duffing up. When the police turn round and return the favour, therefore, we will have the fun of cheering both sides as they beat each other up.
And how much do new irony chips cost?
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I think that we said right at the beginning that they were no good. Well, at least it's out in the open now. They are use to neither man nor beast. I've always thought Hague was grossly over-rated.
Still, says Quentin Letts, in fine form, at least he did not mention a "toolkit". That was the horrid cliché uttered several times by James Brokenshire, a Home Office minister. Mr Brokenshire, who may or may not be descended from Daleks, was talking earlier about anti-social behaviour and kept wittering on about his "toolkit" of policies. No doubt his civil servants have told him to say this but he should ignore them. Then he took it further. He started saying that the Government had "a suite of tools".
The word "tool" has more than one meaning, of course. And indeed it has.
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Still, says Quentin Letts, in fine form, at least he did not mention a "toolkit". That was the horrid cliché uttered several times by James Brokenshire, a Home Office minister. Mr Brokenshire, who may or may not be descended from Daleks, was talking earlier about anti-social behaviour and kept wittering on about his "toolkit" of policies. No doubt his civil servants have told him to say this but he should ignore them. Then he took it further. He started saying that the Government had "a suite of tools".
The word "tool" has more than one meaning, of course. And indeed it has.
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Roger Hayes took his campaign of lawful rebellion that little bit further yesterday, after he and his supporters arrested the judge who was set to hear his bankruptcy hearing, set up by the local authority after his refusal to pay Council Tax for the third year running.
In deliciously chaotic scenes (see link for short video), about six hundred supporters stormed Birkenhead County Court, briefly taking custody of Judge Michael Peake, before he was repossessed by Merseyside Police, who escorted him from the building.
The "arrest" took place after Hayes had asked the judge if he was serving under his oath of office. "I asked three times for him to confirm this and he refused," says Hayes, "so I civilly arrested the judge and I called upon some people in the court to assist me in this" – as one does.
Protestors from the public gallery then charged at Mr Peake to make a civil arrest chanting "arrest that judge". Police ended up having to scramble over court benches to control the near-riot and one protestor shouted "seal the court." Another sat in the judge’s chair at the head of the court and declared Hayes "released".
Deafening cheers and chants could be heard from the crowd outside and protestors used mobile phones to film arrests being made. Roads were blockaded and dozens of police officers deployed to keep order. A stand-off followed with several demonstrators staging a sit-down protest in front of police vehicles, refusing to let them pass.
Hayes is a former member of UKIP who stood for election in Wallasey in 1997, representing the Referendum Party against sitting Labour MP Angela Eagle. He polled 1,490 votes and finished fourth. As he emerged from the court surrounded by his supporters, Mr Hayes said: "The judges are breaking the law in their own courts."
The hearing had to be abandoned and will need to be re-arranged at a date to be fixed. Raymond Saintclair, who organised the Birkenhead protest, said: "Today was day-one. This is going to happen again and again and again. We have sent a message to this court as one nation and one voice until change comes."
Leaflets handed out by the crowd said: "We, the British People have a right to govern ourselves. That right has been subjugated as a consequence of acts of treason having been committed by the collective political establishment, aided and abetted by corrupt segments of the judiciary, the police, the Church and the civil service."
A statement from the police, in the leaden vocabulary of the breed, said: "Officers are committed to facilitating peaceful protests but will not tolerate criminal behaviour, disorder or anti-social behaviour during any demonstrations within Merseyside."
The response was slightly more colourful.
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It really is stunningly beautiful - well done The Daily Mail for publishing these incredible pics.
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Richard Norton-Taylor, of The Guardian is complaining about "the gung-ho and arrogant attitude that contributed to the botched operation in eastern Libya over the weekend." Actually, I've always found Richard Norton-Taylor pretty arrogant, but that doesn't stop him being right. There really do seem to have been some extraordinary goings-on.
Why, as reporters in Benghazi asked on Sunday, he says, did a unit of six SAS troops, apparently in the company of two "diplomats", have to be dropped by helicopter in the desert in middle of the night when they could have walked down the gangplank of the destroyer HMS York on the Benghazi quayside?
It is all rather ironic though. Col. Stirling's SAS was actually founded in the Western Desert, and its first mission in November 1941 was a complete disaster. Perhaps this lot simply felt that had to be true to their tradition. However, its second mission - in Libya - was a success. But then they relied on the Long Range Desert Group for transport and logistics. There has to be a lesson there, even if I'm not sure what it is.
UPDATE: It now turns out that the mission was personally approved by the man pretending to be a foreign secretary, William Hague.
He had, we are told, approved the operation "in the normal way". It was impossible to discern from the briefing given to the media whether Euroslime Dave had been specifically informed in advance. The pretend prime minister and the pretend foreign secretary are in constant contact, though, so it must be assumed that Dave knew about it some time before it went belly-up.
We really cannot express any surprise at this. The trade mark of these people is incompetence - they are simply acting in character.
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France is all a twitter after an opinion poll which suggested that the "far-right leader" Marine Le Pen could win the first round of the presidential election next spring.
Although the poll was framed in a rather dubious way, says The Independent, and one out of three people gave no opinion, the outcome was a deep humiliation for President Nicolas Sarkozy and a stark warning to his bickering would-be rivals on the centre-left.
Ms Le Pen has now doubled her opinion poll score in the space of four months – from 12 percent to 23 percent – revealing a deep anger with French politics-as-usual among voters of both the Right and the Left.
Actually, though, what's the problem here? Don't they remember their history? Does no one remember that grandaddy Le Pen won the first round of the 2002 election, and Chirac only recovered it with the slogan: "Votez l'escroc, pas le facho"? The Kermits have always had a sense of humour when it comes to elections ... but when you see the jokes they have to vote for, that is not surprising.
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A message from your leader ...
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This is an enterprise government too. Everywhere we can we're breaking down the barriers to business growth - cutting corporation tax, gripping regulation, bringing in an enterprise allowance to help those who are unemployed set up their own business. But there's so much more to do. Right now in our country there are what I would call the enemies of enterprise, whether it's bureaucrats who concoct ridiculous rules or town hall officials who take ages to make planning decisions. Believe me, we are taking them on.And what about EU regulations, Dave? And the crippling costs of your climate change measures, Dave? When are you going to take those on, Dave? Or is this just more of your usual BS, Dave?
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